Kathmandu, October 19
The ruling Nepali Congress party has rescheduled its 14th general convention date for December 10 to 12, 2021. Earlier, the general convention was scheduled for late November.
The convention will elect the party’s central working committee for the next four years. Incumbent party president Sher Bahadur Deuba and a few other leaders are preparing to run for the party presidency for the next term.
A meeting of the party’s central election committee decided new dates on Thursday.
The party has been deferring the convention dates regularly owing to disputes over the finalisation of the list of active members of the party in various districts. Recently, the party deferred the convention dates as local units of the party in some districts have failed to elect new leadership teams on stipulated dates.
The four-year term of the Deuba-led committee elected in 2016 had expired in February 2020. However, the party extended the term by one year citing ‘special circumstances’ as allowed by the party statute. On the other hand, the constitution also requires a political party to elect a new leadership every five years, but again it has a clause that allows a six-month extension. The party used that benefit also.
Although the extended six months also expired in August, the party has been claiming the convention process has already started citing election procedures at the local level.
